Photo: Roberto Clemente website
21 and a reference to his 3,000 career hits. The program was intended to mark 50 years since his death and celebrate one of Puerto Rico’s most beloved sports figures. Because it meant the family could not pursue the damages they sought through that constitutional theory, that conclusion was central to the case,.
But Clemente’s sons, Roberto Clemente Jr., Luis Roberto Clemente and Roberto Enrique Clemente, said they were never consulted. They said the lower courts had followed established precedent and that there was no conflict among lower courts on the legal questions raised by the Clemente family. Puerto Rico’s commemorative plates featured Clemente’s image, his No. They argued that the territory appropriated a valuable family asset by using their father’s image without authorization. The Clemente family warned that the lower court’s reasoning could allow governments to take trademarks without paying for them, subject only to a balancing test that could leave owners with little protection. They argued that such a rule would invite governments to appropriate valuable intellectual property on demand. A U.S. District Court judge in San Juan dismissed the case, finding that Puerto Rico was immune from the lawsuit. The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston later partially affirmed that dismissal, rejecting the family’s claim that Puerto Rico’s use of the trademark amounted to an unconstitutional taking. The appeals court also ruled that the Clemente family could not sue under the Fifth Amendment for intangible property such as a trademark. Puerto Rico’s lawyers argued that the Supreme Court had no reason to intervene. The Supreme Court agreed, declining to hear the case without comment. That decision does not create a new precedent, but it leaves the First Circuit’s ruling in place and closes the family’s path to a Supreme Court review in this dispute.
USA Today and NewsNation, the justices rejected the case on November 9 without explanation, leaving in place lower-court rulings that favored Puerto Rico, according to Reuters. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Roberto Clemente’s sons, ending their effort to challenge Puerto Rico’s use of the baseball legend’s image on commemorative license plates.